Old Spice Man Gets Backed Up With A Few Numbers, Sales Up 107 Percent

from the silver-fish-catch dept

With all of the buzz lately around the fantastically successful Old Spice campaign, some numbers are finally starting to trickle in about whether or not the campaign actually translated into more sales of the body wash. Although initial reports suggested that the ads did little to boost sales, according to Nielsen, sales of the body wash rose 107 percent in the past month. That said, the increase cannot be necessarily attributed entirely to the social media campaign, since a coupon campaign for the body wash was also running at the same time. In an age, driven largely in part by the supposed traceability of online advertising, where there has been a large push to track ad spends all the way down to individual purchases, this ad campaign reiterates the adage attributed to John Wanamaker: "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half." Since this campaign was very much a branding campaign, just because it happens online does not necessarily make it more traceable, so it's difficult to say what percentage of the increase can be attributed to the campaign. That said, at least for me, I know I considered buying some Old Spice body wash when I was at Walgreens last week, and apparently I was not alone.

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On a side note, the Old Spice Man, Isaiah Mustafa, is a former wide receiver in the NFL.

All the attention he's gotten from the commercials and the social media campaign have gotten him signed up with NBC. He's got a guest spot coming up in an episode of "Chuck", and a small role in an upcoming Jennifer Anniston movie, "Horrible Bosses".